I write to you
today as the Chair of the Portland Chapter of the National
Lawyers Guild and as a citizen of this city.

Yesterday I
witnessed actions by the Portland Police against the
citizens of this city that rose to the level of what I would
term “atrocities against humanity.” Many people, including
women, children and gentle folks were seriously injured by
the aggressive and irresponsible actions of the Portland
Police. I will explain further.

On August 22, 2002,
around 5 P.M., near the intersection of SW Taylor and SW
Fifth, the Portland Police set up a road block in the middle
of the block for the purpose of preventing any pedestrian
traffic other than invited guests from entering the area
around the Portland Hilton. The crowd behind the barricades
was loud and vocal, but at no time did I observe anyone in
the crowd threaten the police or take any action against the
police department that could be perceived as threatening,
provocative or dangerous.

I have videos to support this
assertion, as do most of the regular media that were there.
See, in particular, Channel 12's video of this incident.

The police at one point
donned tear gas masks and then announced that they had
declared a state of emergency and that everyone had to move.
Their announcement was barely audible and was only heard by
a few of us at the front of the barricades. About twenty
seconds after their announcement the police proceeded to
move around the barricades to the other side where the
protestors were stationed and started to push and beat
people with their night sticks while spraying pepper spray
in the faces of the crowd. Although the police ordered the
crowd to move back, the people at the front of the crowd
could not move without knocking over people behind them and
trampling them. The pepper spray was sprayed
indiscriminately at all the people who were in the area.

It was clear to me that the police could see that there
were young children in strollers within the crowd, yet the
police ignored that fact and continued to spray pepper spray
indiscriminately so that the spray hit the children and
their mothers. Members of the press were also
indiscriminately sprayed.

I personally was sprayed by the
police and had a hard time breathing. I also watched as
people were carried out of the area including Lloyd Marbet,
a man of peace, who was unable to see and who was suffering
noticeably.

Besides pepper spray, the police used tear
gas and rubber bullets against the protestors reminiscent of
the police department’s widely criticized actions around a
previous May Day. Again, the crowd at this intersection
was loud, noisy, exercising their First Amendment
freedoms---but never threatening. This incident and action
by the police was totally unprovoked and totally
unnecessary. In fact, the cop actions only resulted in
revving up the crowd and blocking the bus mall of SW 5th
Avenue.

I have to tell you that
this “gestapo like conduct” is not the kind of conduct we in
Portland want to see from our police department. During this
incident, the police were obviously acting on orders which I
must assume were issued by Chief Kroeker.

Whoever issued
the orders yesterday is clearly out of touch with Portland,
the fundamental principles of democracy, and their own
humanity.

I observed many officers act individually with
impunity and complete disregard for the health and safety of
the citizens of Portland. In fact, it appeared to me that
many officers wanted to inflict harm on the protestors. I
can only assume that this conduct is a direct result of a
failed system for police accountability here in Portland.
The police have learned that they will not be held
accountable for aggressive and harmful actions against the
citizens of Portland. It is also interesting that many of
the officers involved in these actions did not wear name
tags or I.D. numbers.

Mayor Katz. We assume and hope you
are still in charge of the police department. We ask now
that you make some tough decisions.

We demand
that you fire Chief Mark Kroeker immediately as he did not
show the type of responsibility and humanity that we
Portlanders expect from our Police Chief. He doesn’t even
want to be in this city. Let us grant him his wish and send
him packing and hire someone who understands that the police
are civil servants who work for the citizens of Portland,
not against the populace.

We demand that you establish a
real system of police accountability in place by utilizing
the recommendations of your own Mayor’s Task Force and
install a system that reflects the Majority Report and a
real citizen based system of accountability instead of the
failed system that is now in place.

Thank you for the
opportunity to present this demand to your office. We
sincerely hope you respond as soon as possible and take
our demands seriously.

Most Sincerely,

Alan Graf
Chair Portland Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild
cc: The
Press

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